Holiday and Vacations

Marquesas Islands

The Marquesas Island is located in French, this are a group of islands in the Southern Pacific Ocean. The Marquesas Island is delivered that more than two thousand years ago it has been settled by Polynesians, likely from the islands of Tonga and Samoa. When a Spanish explorer gave the name to island, that time the first European contact came in 1595. In 1842, France took possession of the group .in the middle of the nineteenth century, the Marquesas have been hard-hit by western diseases, mostly smallpox, because of this reason he population got decline from about 100,000 in the sixteenth century to only 20,000 by the 1870s and just 2000 as the twentieth century began. Approximately 8,600 is a current population of the island. Most of the Marquesas Island is still less populated today.

Marquesas Island is the most remote island group in the world. It is about 850 miles northeast of Tahiti, and nearly three thousand miles from western Mexico, the nearest continental land mass. There are two groups of Islands, one is northern group centered on Nuku Hiva, the largest island and the second is the southern group clustered around the island of Hive Oa. The combined area of both the island is 405 square miles; Marquesas Islands are among the largest groups in French Polynesia. French and Tahitian are the official languages of French Polynesia. The native Marquesan language is still spoken widely within the islands. The several other Polynesian islands, such as Tahiti and Easter Island, are believed to have been settled by Marquesan travelers.

Marquesan culture has been noticed for its lengthy history of geometric tattoos. All citizens of Marquesas island get geometric island on their whole body both men women. Because of the volcanic nature of the island, an ancient Marquesans create stone tools of basaltic rock; as well as carving of stone monoliths, today which is known as tiki. In Polynesia, the Marquesans were known as some of the best carvers with both wooden and stone designs for utensils, weapons and artistic sculptures.

The Marquesas Islands are different then other for the sexual attitudes and behaviors of their native culture that are different than those of most Western cultures. Because of the contact with Western societies these customs have changed and have become primarily historical. The Marqueasans has religious beliefs from ancient time, like indigenous religion was strongly dualistic, postulating a living world of light and world of ghosts, deities, darkness, and night. The presence of deities in this world was believed to be vital for making work efficacious and for securing life and prosperity. There was an extensive hierarchy of deities, ranging from the founding originators of the cosmos to their particular expressions in the gods of occupations and places.